8600 Memory

Outline of IPB Memory Slot


IPB Memory Board

49C460CJ 32-bit CMOS Error Detection and Correction Unit
KMM594000A 4Mx9 CMOS DRAM SIMM Memory Module
CY7C9101-30JC CMOS 16-bit ALU Slice Datasheet
74F899QC 9-bit Latchable Transceiver
62.500000MHz osc

ECC-P Memory with 4MB 30 Pin SIMMs
The memory card has (32) 30 pin SIMM sockets. Each 32 MB (two banks) has own memory controller. Memory was sold in 32MB increments. That would be two blocks with four 30 pin SIMMs.

32+4=36, not enough for ECC, BUT... 36+36=72... 64 bits for data, and 8 bits for ECC... Two 32 bit EDCs can be chained for a 64 bit word.

So... you need one bank of 8 SIMMs each for ECC-P, so the minimum is 32MB, the next is two banks (64MB), three banks (96MB), and four banks for a maximum of 128MB.

-- OR --

So... you need two banks of 4 SIMMs each for ECC-P, so the minimum is 32MB, the next is four banks (64MB), six banks (96MB), and 8 banks for a maximum of 128MB.

Which one is right?!

Note: I have seen a configuration screen, with a choice of "ECC: ON | OFF". My guess is that ECC=P will not run on an odd number of banks, so if you wanted to run 48MB, ECC would be "OFF".

Previous IBM servers such as the IBM Server 85 were able to use standard memory to implement what is known as ECC-P.  ECC-P takes advantage of the fact that a 64-bit word needs 8 bits of parity in order to detect single-bit errors (one bit/byte of data). Since it is also possible to use an ECC algorithm on 64 bits of data with 8 check bits, IBM designed a memory controller which implements the ECC algorithm using the standard memory SIMMs.

The following shows the implementation of ECC-P. When ECC-P is enabled via the reference diskette, the controller reads/writes two 32-bit words and 8 bits of check information to standard parity memory. Since 8 check bits are available on a 64-bit word, the system is able to correct single-bit errors and detect double-bit errors just like ECC memory.



While ECC-P uses standard non-expensive memory, it needs a specific memory controller that is able to read/write the two memory blocks and check and generate the check bits.  Also, the additional logic necessary to implement the ECC circuitry make it slightly slower than true ECC memory. Since the price difference between a standard memory SIMM and an ECC SIMM has narrowed, IBM no longer implements ECC-P.

Memory Management and OS/2 version 1.3
Up to 128 MB of 80 ns ECC-P memory can be installed in the Server 295.  Although OS/2 1.3 can only address up to 16 MB of this memory per processor, the rest can be accessed via the Transparent Reserved Memory Manager (RMM) utility.

When configured in multiprocessor mode, up to 16 MB of memory can be assigned to each of the FP and the AP processors, for a total of 32 MB.  This allocation is done using the utility MPSETUP.

The remaining memory can be accessed via RMM, which is installed as a device driver.  RMM enables this extra memory to be accessed in a number of ways:

o Disk buffers for the PDAs
o HPFS cache
o Reserved memory for some OS/2 applications - for example in response to DosAllocSeg and DosAllocHuge segment requests
o RAM-based virtual disk
o SWAPPER.DAT file used for segment swapping to disk by OS/2

RMM memory is allocated by the /TRMM= switch in the CONFIG.SYS and CONFIG.FP files.  Status information on RMM can be displayed using the RMMSTAT utility.

RMM is needed because of the 16-bit limitations of OS/2 1.3, and results in substantial performance improvements for some applications because massive amounts of data can be held in memory rather than on disk.

Content created and/or collected by:
Louis F. Ohland, Peter H. Wendt, David L. Beem, William R. Walsh, Tatsuo Sunagawa, Tomáš Slavotínek, Jim Shorney, Tim N. Clarke, Kevin Bowling, and many others.

Ardent Tool of Capitalism is maintained by Tomáš Slavotínek.
Last update: 24 Mar 2024 - Changelog | About | Legal & Contact